Does having 2 kids vs just one make a big difference on finances?

[neighbourschmeighbour]

Just wondering what people’s experiences have been and whether the second has impacted on finances that much, or not made much of a difference?

I guess that’s true. Circumstances can and do change. I guess this logic must be what most people work from given families of 4 are most common

We are high earners relatively and yes it makes a massive difference

nursery is £2k a month for us (London), so that’s 4K! And we wanted a bigger house, and whilst we reuse the clothes and toys - everything else (clubs, friends parties, food) is double and it’s not cheap. Plus holidays are so expensive.

with 1 we were super comfortable - less so now.

but obviously it’s all worth it

Yes!
double amount of clothes- unless can pass down/ shoes/ trips out/ entrance fees/ playcemtre/ meals oit
Alos nursery fees/ school fees/ wrap around care/school dinners/ uniform.

We found the clubs most surprising… a sport that costs £40 a month then both are doing it , E.g two lots of rugby/ football/ scouts / music lessons etc.

It is basically double the cost of one child. You might save a little bit by handing down clothes and toys but it will be small compared to the overall costs of a child.

It’s double or near as double. As a single parent with different gendered children there’s also the housing cost of a 3 bed vs 2 bed as ideally I want them to have their own rooms.

I have 5 kids. I find when they are tiny they don’t cost me much at all outwith nappies as we reuse all the big things if we can (prams, sling etc). We don’t have to pay for childcare or anything due to the hours we work. However, once they get older I find that costs go up. Things like clubs/activities for example.

Is it normal parents pay for driving lessons! I paid for all my own, wouldn't have expected my parents to pay.

Mine went 50/50 with me, I had a little part time job but driving lessons are expensive and a 17 year old would have to work 5-6 hours to afford one hour of driving tuition. Never mind anything else.

Min wage at 17 is £5.28 an hour. One of my DCs is having driving lessons which are £42 per hour. So approx 8 hours of work (the maximum recommended by college is 10 hours a week). Then there is the extra insurance for the parent's car to practise in, the fuel for the extra practice. It's not a cheap business.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted a second child for the same reasons as you, my heart overruled my head so we went for a second and had twins! We’ve loved it though and it’s worked out fine

and also secondary school.
they need so much to be able to do well. all those pe shoes

plus if dc are different sexes a shared bedroom after a certain age is not ideal.

Yes I think it does make a fair difference especially in early years and as they get older.

For an under 5, they can just generally re-use equipment so biggest cost will be childcare. 2 in nursey is painful but one in nursery and one in wrap around care is still a hefty bill.

For primary- it is still about childcare. My wrap around care bill for two each term is around £1400. Two in camp is £100 a day. Both do activities and as youngest picks up more our costs will rise further. Now my eldest is in juniors also now have to pay for school dinners at £3 a day. Have also had an expensive start to term as both children’s feet have grown a lot over the summer so needed 2x school shoes, 2x school trainers, 2x school wellies and 2x home trainers in one pop.

Oh gosh. I suppose you never know do you, if it’ll be one or two!

Also ended up with twins second time round so I don’t know the cost difference of one versus two but I can tell you the cost difference of one versus three is significant!

In the early years you can reuse most things from the the first one, so baby equipment, clothes etc.

For childcare unless you have quite a small gap the first will probably be close to getting 30 free hours anyway which makes that cost less horrendous.

The cost of maternity leave is a big financial hit for us and some slow down in career progression.

Agree that it’s teenagers/later on that the finances really feel it! Especially if you have 2 in uni at the same time.

I got lessons for my Birthday and Christmas. My parents didn't have hundreds in the bank spare to just give me for things.

Mine are 7 and 2. I haven't found it much more expensive yet as my wife is a SAHM and we pass down clothes, toys, etc.

Lots of days out are free for under 2's/3's. I can see it getting more expensive when they get older, but we'll have a larger income by then and house paid off in 9 years.

I paid for most of my own driving lessons when I was 22/23. My mum gave me some vouchers for xmas and birthday but that was it.

Might depend where you live and what your plans are after 17. I worked locally for a year and then went to uni, both in big cities so plenty of public transport so didn’t need a car.

For most people it will be twice as expensive, which is pretty obvious really.

Clothes, toys, prams etc can be handed down but thats a drop in the ocean compared with things like childcare or university costs.

There are some situations where it wont cost as much more - if you would quit work to be a SAHP with one child, then it's no additional hit to do it for 2 (unless you stay as a SAHP longer). Equally of course not all children go to university.

I paid for my own driving lessons and my older teen is doing the same.
Most teens get part time jobs.

I have two but they have a four year gap. They are pretty low maintenance and also the expenses won't be double (eg. The transport costs for dd won't be there at all for ds who will go to a school in walking distance etc). Holidays are camping so the difference in costs is really only for food. I use special offers for days out etc. Train into London at the weekend is only £2 for a child. My dd is a teenager now and keen to earn money so makes and sells things and she's desperate for a weekend job when she's older.

It kind of depends what you expect to do for your child. I will support both through university but a house deposit isn't something I consider as essential.

It does. Especially the nursery and the flights on holiday, theme park tickets, bloody shoes and school uniform

i think you can do a bit of economising with hand me downs etc but it’s not a huge amount of savings.

but overall I think (for me, not saying for anyone else) having 2 was a great idea, even considering the extra expense, because they have each other to play with and that creates lots of free entertainment, and you get 2 little warm toddlers creeping in to give you a hug in bed on a Sunday morning 😊

I have two and it's like others say, you need to pay two lots of everything. There are minor things that you don't really pay double, like holiday home rentals where you already renting two bedrooms, entrance fees to attactions are often discounted heavily for the 4th ticket if they have a family ticket. You can often reuse bikes and carseats. But that's very little compared to the total cost of raising a child.

One of my children has recently been away and my goodness we still have food in the house!!! So anecdotally I can certainly tell you the food bill would go down substantially.

I think it depends how you live and how you parent - it doesn't have to be double overall. Obviously all childcare fees doubled. But most people's houses and cars can accommodate 1 or 2 kids without the cost changing, and have 1 more kids won't double your bills (i.e, going from 3 people to 4 people). If you live frugally and can pass on clothes, share toys, reuse baby items etc, that helps.